About Shape Up US

Our Mission: To Create a Culture of Wellness that Works!

Our Vision: To build a circle of wellness that integrates comprehensive health education into existing curriculum and flows from teacher, to student, to family, to community and back to the classroom.

Through our comprehensive wellness education programs and state-by-state live events, Shape Up US helps teachers, students, their families and their communities assess and address their personal and community wellness needs by providing them with the most up-to-date wellness information and education, while connecting them with national and local wellness and healthcare organizations, wellness assessment organizations, certified educators, and businesses that focus on wellness.

Our Goal: We aim to empower children and families to lead healthier, happier and more meaningful lives with tools to help arrest childhood cardiovascular disease, obesity, and diabetes. By creating a circle of wellness education that flows from teacher to student, parents, grandparents, and the entire community, we hope to energize and encourage individuals and groups to inspire others to seek similar goals.

Our Exciting Programs!

Shape Up US offers 3 comprehensive wellness education programs that create a circle of health and fitness that flows from teacher to student to parents, and involves the entire community.

Program 1: What is the Hip Hop Healthy Heart Program for Children™?

• A Solution for Bringing Wellness back into America’s Schools and Communities at a time when it is underfunded in most every state’s educational system. Through funding via a private/public partnership that supports School Districts, Individual Instructor Scholarships and Student Materials.
• It Creates a Circle of Wellness Training and Awareness that flows from teacher to student, parents, grandparents, and ultimately involves the entire community.
• It’s Unique! Research has proven that children who study arts¹ and get physical exercise² get better grades. Unlike other wellness programs, our program provides comprehensive cardiovascular disease and obesity prevention education using Heart Health as a framework to teach overall wellness, while our multidisciplinary approach makes learning fun by bringing the arts and physical education back into schools as a vehicle for teaching core subjects: Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, and Geography.
• Heart Health is Our Framework:  <!--StartFragment-->Unlike other wellness programs, our program provides comprehensive cardiovascular disease and obesity prevention education using Heart Health as a framework to teach overall wellness, while our multidisciplinary approach makes learning fun by bringing the arts and physical education back into schools as a vehicle for teaching core subjects: Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, and Geography.
• It Promotes Early Prevention: Studies have shown that health education programs in schools effectively reduce the prevalence of health risk factors that lead to the onset of adult chronic disease. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that school-based health education programs that address prevention of unhealthy behaviors are the most effective method of combating cardiovascular illnesses and can reduce the prevalence of obesity by 50% among elementary school children. Because the majority of young people aged 5-17 years are enrolled, and spend time in schools each day, schools provide an ideal setting for teaching children and teens to adopt healthy eating and physical activity behaviors. 

Program 2: What are Shape Up US Live Events?

• Free to the Public! Shape Up US offers state-by-state healthy lifestyle events that are designed to support the Hip Hop Healthy Heart Program for Children™ by creating awareness about heart disease prevention. These events help families, teachers and schools assess and address their personal and community wellness needs while strengthening their community by connecting them with local and national businesses, media, sports teams, universities, non-profit organizations, and city service organizations (fire and police departments, hospitals, and local governments) that focus on wellness.
• Sponsor and Vendor Support: Each event hosts over 50 local and national sponsors and participating vendors that support and reinforce the healthy lifestyle themes presented in the Hip Hop Program.  Activities: Thousands of participants at this all-day event of family fun and wellness discovery enjoy
  

  exciting non-stop activities that include fitness contests, games, hands-on kids cooking, food tastings, arts and crafts, bouncers, healthy giveaways, face painting, raffles, drawings and so much more.

• Activities: Thousands of participants at this all-day event of family fun and wellness discovery enjoy exciting non-stop activities that include fitness contests, games, hands-on kids cooking, food tastings, arts and crafts, bouncers, healthy giveaways, face painting, raffles, drawings and so much more.
• Entertainment: Continuous live entertainment on several stages features local and nationally recognized celebrities, musicians, entertainers as well as dance and martial arts troupes. For more details about Live Events click here.

Program 3: What is N.E.W. Product of C.H.O.I.C.E.?

• Targets Middle and High School Students: A continuation of the Hip Hop Healthy Heart Program for Children, this high-energy program addresses the needs of middle and high school students. Comprehensive and curriculum-based, N.E.W. Product of C.H.O.I.C.E. aligns to state and national standards while delivering a fun, eye-opening experience that inspires today's youth to take a journey of self-discovery.
• A Road Map for Improvement and Growth: N.E.W. Product of C.H.O.I.C.E. offers participants a 10-module step-by-step roadmap for improvement and growth that leads them to a lifetime of enhanced self-esteem. Students are encouraged to take responsibility for their actions, to become familiarized with good character traits, to emulate positive role models and to become good citizens with high moral values. This systemic approach unwraps buried potential and provides students with the determination to cease being a product of their circumstances and instead become a N.E.W. Product of C.H.O.I.C.E. Each week, students are introduced to a new commitment in which they will use standards based curriculum and activities to master the concepts.

¹American Music Conference: Music and Grades
American Music Conference
accessed on 6-18-2009

Music lessons may boost IQ and grades
Monitor on Psychology
accessed on 6-18-2009

²Kids Who Exercise Can Get Better Grades
Sports are 80% Mental
accessed on 6-18-2009

ACSM ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT HIGHER AMONG MOST ACTIVE KIDS
Vigorous Physical Activity Linked to Better Grades.
American College of Sports Medicine
accessed on 6-18-2009